Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

The willow is too close to the house.

Dumb motherfuckers cannot understand a consequence that most 4 year olds have fully sorted out.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

In after Baud. Damn.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

In my day, never was longer.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

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128Comments

  1. 1.

    cckids

    Well here, my youngest; my only daughter, turns 18. It is so hard to believe that tiny <5 lb premie is now the 5'9" beauty she is.

    I'm cooking for a family get together & resisting the urge to sit down with photo albums, it will just make the waterworks start. Time for that later!

    Seriously, people, if you have little ones (human or animal), give them hugs every day. Time flies, whether you're having fun or not.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    I wonder if BJ can get listed as an official bundler. That would be kinda cool.

    I sort of want to ignore the world today, but I got stuff to do. And a really really busy week next week. I may or may not make it to Thanksgiving…

  3. 3.

    Spaghetti Lee

    I’m debating whether to go to Mizzou-Bama today. I’ve got a ticket, but it’s supposed to be stormy later and we (we being Mizzou) stand a strong chance of being crushed. And back home there’s frozen pizza and a big screen TV. Decisions…

  5. 5.

    kdaug

    Yard mowing, tree trimming, light cooking, heavy napping, Walking Dead marathon watching (on and off – premier tomorrow night).

  7. 7.

    Suffern ACE

    I’m a bachelor for the next week. I’m gonna live it up. I’m sleeping on his side of the bed. I’m gonna leave the reading light on. All the covers they are mine.

  8. 8.

    robertdsc-iPhone 4

    Legs are sore from walking down Manchester to see Endeavour last night. I have no desire to do anything today.

    What made me sad yesterday is in watching Endeavour, thousands of people came out to see it. I thought about how excited they were and how the Rethugs claim government spending doesn’t create jobs & all that twaddle. Yet here thousands of Americans turned out to see just one of the things that puts the lie to their bullshit.

    Fuck you, GOP.

  9. 9.

    gbear

    I’ve given multiple donations of what I can afford to the Obama Campaign, to MN United, the group that’s working to defeat the same-sex marriage ammendment in MN (and I’m donating time to do data entry for them) and to prioritiesusaaction democratic superpac. I got a thank you email for each donation.

    I also get an email every hour or so from each of these groups plus ActBlue plus some other campaigns telling me that we are going to fail unless I donate more money immediately. I’m feeling guilty that I don’t have more money to donate and I’m also getting ticked off about the onslaught of urgent email messages.

    I’m doing what I can but there’s only so much I can give.

  10. 10.

    Violet

    Hey there, Soongergrunt. How are you feeling? I hope you are on the mend and following doctors orders and taking care of yourself.

  12. 12.

    Yutsano

    @robertdsc-iPhone 4: They REALLY want to test that theory? No more pork. For any of them. After all if government can’t create jobs why should any money be sent to their districts? Let them live and die by their ideology. Which we know is bullshit.

  14. 14.

    La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)

    Johannes is off to fencing class and grocery shopping. I’m home cuddling the kittehs and intermittently doing chores to offset my sloth.

    What made me sad yesterday was at my physical exam my doc expressed a belief that Biden/Ryan was a tie cause Ryan was “poised.” Somebody help me with a one line reply to this sort of ignorance.

    Hope you’re back to 100% soon, Sooner.

  15. 15.

    Soonergrunt

    @Violet: Well, I’m feeling better every day, but the slightest effort is real difficult. I’m hacking up copious amounts of green slime, which is always entertaining.
    We got the water supply line fixed for less than $250.00, and that’s fricken excellent. The realtor is supposed to come out and take pictures of the house so that we can list it but it’s heavily overcast here so that’s not happening today. Just hanging out, tidying up, and taking it slow and easy.

  16. 16.

    Walker

    Really beautiful day today. Wife (who is the pilot) took out a club Cesna and we went buzzing around the outskirts of NYC. Clear view of the city skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

  17. 17.

    raven

    Farmer’s Market and Tree sale done by 9. Planted three trees and dug up wisteria and lantana by 10:30′ Hit the new, trendy, grocery store by 11. Washed my truck, sorted a million t-shits and socks by kickoff. Now the agony of the Hokies down 10-0 to Duke, the Illini will get killed by scumbag Michigan. The only bright spots are that maybe the cocks will get dumped by LSU and the dawgs don’t play.

  25. 25.

    Linda Featheringill

    Apropos to nothing at all:

    There’s a tree in my neighborhood that I admire. This morning I noticed that she was in full fall regalia. It just sort of happened overnight. Lovely.

  26. 26.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    @cckids: Thanks for the reminder, CC. My daughter just turned eleven. I’m a little nervous about the upcoming teen years, but we have great communication and she’s got a good head on her shoulders, so maybe things’ll go well enough.

    Congratulations on raising what sounds like a great young lady!

  27. 27.

    Violet

    @Soonergrunt: I’m glad you are on the mend, even if that means you’re still hacking up green slime.

    That water line repair cost is amazing. Glad it worked out so cheaply.

    Didn’t know you were selling your house. Hope that works out for you. How’s the real estate market in your area?

  29. 29.

    Yutsano

    @Linda Featheringill: I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday. His office happens to be on the top floor of his building with an unobstructed view to the east side of Beacon Hill in Seattle. It was just stunning to look at all the trees turning their glorious shades that high up.

  30. 30.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    @robertdsc-iPhone 4: It is infuriating, isn’t it? Here’s this now-retired technological marvel that expanded our knowledge of life exponentially (thanks, Hubble!), and yet some people decry government spending. It reminds me a bit of Ryan, who constantly harps about the Recovery Act and yet is right up there with the other piggies at the trough, snorting for his share…. Oh, but he has such earnest eyes and honest body language! Blech….

  33. 33.

    RaflW

    Its a weekend of organizing against the Photo ID amendment in Minnesota.

    We’ve got our UU Secretary of State speaking at a big UU church tomorrow afternoon. He’ll stay non-partisan and just talk about the issues he’d see in having to implement the amendment if passed.
    We’ll gavel his presentation closed, send him on his way, and then have a second “what you can do” meeting.

    So today it’s printing fliers, clip-board sheets, buying refreshments, ets.

    Then a few hours off to go to a different UU church’s fall gala featuring storyteller (and NPR content-contributor) Kevin Kling.

    Me and future hubby, we’re in the UU cult but good.

  34. 34.

    Violet

    If anyone missed The Onion’s political Twitter feed when Diamond Joe Biden took over, here’s the recap, starting with:

    Have some debate bullshit I got to do tonight.

    Some of photos are funny too. I adore The Onion’s Joe Biden.

  37. 37.

    Soonergrunt

    @raven: he probed for the leak, shut the water off (he was completely different location than I thought it was) and he dug down about two and half feet, and he was off the pipe by about three inches. He found it, uncovered it (the whole time this pump running pouring gallons of water into the street) and then he uncovers a joint in the PVC pipe. He turned the water back on, it sprayed out of the joint. Turned it off, and went to lunch leaving the pump running. He comes back, cuts the PVC above and below the leaky joint, and replaced it with PEX with stainless steel adapters. Reburies everything. Total working time, a little over two hours.
    The quote we had for $1000 was if the pipe wasn’t under concrete, and the quote for $2000 was if it was under concrete.
    When he handed me the old section he cut out, I twisted it lightly (less force than you’d use to open a beer) and it came completely apart.

  40. 40.

    suzanne

    I am going to get my nails done (silly, but one of the things that I just adore), go get some more diapers at Costco, and study for my next Architectural Registration Exam, which is Structural Systems. Pretty brutal stuff. Might go for a hike, because the weather all of a sudden became PERFECT, and go see Argo this weekend.

    Who am I kidding? I’ll be sitting on the couch reading Balloon Juice.

  41. 41.

    Ann Rynd

    I have a farmers market directly under my windows here in Brooklyn. Perhaps twenty feet from my front door. Fresh everything, vegetables, bread, homemade cookies and ice cream. It all comes right to me. Feeling very lucky.
    But I can’t stop myself from really disliking Chuck Todd. Even more than Paul Ryan, he just always pisses me off.

  43. 43.

    Soonergrunt

    @Violet: The market here is a little soft, but not too bad. It didn’t get completely ramped up like other places before the crash, so inventory averages about 45 days on the market here. Also, we’re in one of the newer neighborhoods and a decent location, so we ought to get a decent price for it.

    My wife wants to custom build in a neighborhood going in nearby and that’s something I can give her, so we’re doing it.

  44. 44.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    Found a great drinking show. It’s a documentary called That Guy… Who Was in That Thing. It’s about a group of actors who get small parts every now and then. What you need to do is have people drink every time someone watching it goes “What have I seen him in?” Even knowing what the show was about, my wife and I were sitting there doing it.

  45. 45.

    RaflW

    @raven:
    That’s really great! Standing on the Side of Love – MN is a new project we’re at work on … trying to provide care and harbor for people in the crosshairs of the anti-marriage amendment.

    It was inspired by (and assisted by) the national Standing on the Side of Love project.

    Congrats to your nephew for excellent work!

  46. 46.

    Violet

    @suzanne:

    Who am I kidding? I’ll be sitting on the couch reading Balloon Juice.

    Hahahhaha! Exactly!

    @Ann Rynd:

    But I can’t stop myself from really disliking Chuck Todd. Even more than Paul Ryan, he just always pisses me off.

    Me too. And I remember really liking him in 2008. He seemed like a genuine, straightforward guy. I remember when he and Brian Williams came out of an interview with McCain and Palin, and apparently it was clear they didn’t like each other, and some other NBC person was asking Todd and Williams questions about the interview and Chuck Todd couldn’t keep his face straight. He let the cat out of the bag that there were some fireworks or something, and then Brian Williams jumped in and changed the subject. But the look on Chuck Todd’s face was priceless.

    That was honesty. He saw they were a crap team and he wanted to report on it. Where did that guy go? I know he existed.

  47. 47.

    Origuy

    The Mythbusters exhibit opens today at the San Jose Tech Museum. I got tickets for myself and my housemates. Hoping they can go; the weather has kicked up their joint pains.

  48. 48.

    raven

    @Soonergrunt: Our area is all old iron pipe. A few years back we got a free load of soil from a construction site and the weight of the truck cracked our next door neighbors line. We called the city and the dude came out and said “it’s on their side of the meter so it’s their (my) responsibility. After about three rounds of “I would hate to have you have to call a plumber” I asked “How much would it cost if we didn’t call a plumber”. $200. We didn’t call a plumber.

  49. 49.

    Violet

    @Soonergrunt: That sounds exciting. Will you move out of your house before your new one is built? Had to do that interim move a few years ago and it SUCKED. I hope if you have to do it, it goes better for you.

    Everyone I know who has built their own house ends up wishing they’d done this or that differently once its built, so be prepared to have some regrets about the layout and other choices. I think it’s normal. But otherwise, it’s tons of fun to design your own.

  50. 50.

    raven

    @Violet: Everybody who buys a hundred year old house wishes they had done something different after they totally renovate it!

  52. 52.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @Violet: Chucky was told no doubt to get with the program or spend his days in Pig-screw Arkansas for the rest of journalism career

  54. 54.

    MikeJ

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    I’m debating whether to go to Mizzou-Bama today.

    I seem to remember enjoying games there. Sort of a blur becuase my friends and I would always go over to Reactor filed and watch the rugby games before the football started. Open containers were perfectly acceptable at the rugby game so you could get nicely toasted before going to the officially alcohol free zone at the stadium.

  57. 57.

    Hill Dweller

    @Violet: Todd initially made his reputation by being a numbers guy. He was very good breaking down various counties during the ’08 election.

    Since getting a seat at the table, Todd has become a Republican enabler, like every other high profile network journalist.

  58. 58.

    Soonergrunt

    @raven: In our case, it was several feet from the meter and there was no question.

    @Violet: We’ll have to move out first as a financing issue, but we’re planning on putting most of our stuff in storage and living at my Dad’s place across town. That part will be cheap, but a PITA. I know that we’re not going to get everything we want, but we’ll get many of the things that really matter and we’re getting ALL of the things that touch on structure that we want now, like a above ground shelter room. The other stuff, we’re picking and choosing and we’re know that we’re going to want to add some other stuff later.

  61. 61.

    jwb

    @Hill Dweller: “Since getting a seat at the table, Todd has become a Republican enabler, like every other high profile network journalist.” It’s in the job description. You only rise to that level if you show that you understand what you are being paid to do. What never ceases to amaze me is that people believe that the media is going to be a neutral player rather than a defender of the interests of the corporations (and owners) who pay the bills. It’s also why we rarely see a forceful liberal media presence, even if it makes good television—ratings are only one variable, and not at all the most important, in a media company’s calculations.

  62. 62.

    Violet

    @Mr Stagger Lee: Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. It’s just sad. NBC had a guy that people really liked. He had fan blogs (more than one) and people believed what he said. I think it was more than just him reading poll number people liked. There was a core of trustworthiness about him, visible in instances like I related above, that contributed to people trusting him and wanting him to be the one to tell them about politics.

    Now he’s gone Full Villager and people who used to like him, like me (and I know I’m not the only one), really can’t stand him. I just want to throw things at the TV when he shows up with his chubby little pig vomit face and pompous “I know more than you do” demeanor.

    NBC may have gained a dependable foot soldier in the peddling of GOP party lines, but they lost someone people trusted. Someone people actually made a point of watching. That kind of trust is rare and valuable and Chuck Todd does not have it anymore. Nor does NBC.

  63. 63.

    raven

    @Violet: I listen to Boortz every day at noon because the Washington correspondent, Jamie Dupree is on with him and Jamie always seems totally impartial. I looked at his twitter feed during the debate this week and he was in full throated whine about Biden’s demeanor.

  64. 64.

    Violet

    @Soonergrunt: Sounds like you have a reasonable plan in place. Be prepared for the project to take much longer than you expect, so you’ll be at your dad’s and without your stuff for longer. That’s pretty standard.

  68. 68.

    cckids

    @West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): Thanks! She is wonderful (mombrag). She is a voracious reader, has a black belt & teaches TKD, loves music, is the district president of Venturing, etc, etc.

    She has a great ability in a group, to hear the opposing side of an issue & work towards a “win-win” situation. Never blows her top, but doesn’t compromise values either. SecState in 25 years or so!

    mombrag off/

    ETA: Good luck with your 11 yr old. I really liked the teen years, mostly. Having good communication lines ahead of time is the key, so sounds like you’ve got it made. Also, mutual respect is expected & required. Emphasis on MUTUAL. Teens don’t do well when dissed.

  69. 69.

    Violet

    @raven: Well, yes, of course. But building a house isn’t the same as being in the military. We all have things we are familiar with and things we aren’t. Dealing with contractors can be an experience unto itself. FUBAR does transcend boundaries, though.

  70. 70.

    Soonergrunt

    @Violet: The builder says it will take four months from ground breaking to handing us the keys.
    We’re thinking it will be closer to six months. We intend to be ready for either one.

  71. 71.

    Violet

    @Soonergrunt: Four months. That’s amazing. There’s a custom house about to go up across the street from me soon. They showed up to clear trees off the property yesterday. I’ll keep tabs on it and see just how long that takes.

  75. 75.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    Bleh, I need a new homepage, one of the headlines for Google News is “Feisty Biden, wonky Ryan.” from CNN.

    Or at least I need to remove CNN from my news sources. God I hate our media.

  76. 76.

    JoyfulA

    @Soonergrunt: A contractor bought the lot across the street from me (former horse pasture) to build a house for himself. He was building it for two years and might still be building if the bank people hadn’t threatened to pull his mortgage if he didn’t have a finished product ASAP.

    He built a raised ranch, my least favorite style, and regraded the driveway to the garage four times that I saw. I suspect he’ll have a flooded ground floor the first heavy rain we get.

  77. 77.

    Soonergrunt

    @Violet: like I said, we don’t even start until we get a contract on this one, so it could be a while.
    In our case, it’s not exactly custom. It’s more of a semi-custom. He has a standard floor plan that he uses, that he modified for the recent parade of homes by widening it by 4 feet and adding a stairwell to a new upstairs area that doesn’t exist in the original. We want him to take the modified plan, delete the finished area upstairs and the stairwell, and convert the 1/2 bath next to the stairs into a full bath, and widen the laundry into a full laundry room. The four foot wide band, as it passes through other parts of the house, makes the 3 car garage, the kitchen, and dining room all wider as well.

  79. 79.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    @cckids: mombragging is allowed… If I can dadbrag for a moment, my daughter just got her brown belt in Kung Fu. She does sometimes blow her top though; most things come easily to her, but if they don’t, she can get frustrated. I’m told this is a common dynamic with girls. Boys (according to one study, anyway), sort of get used to not always succeeding academically. For young girls, academics often come more easily, so when they DO encounter a roadblock, they don’t necessarily have the ability to tough it out. Not sure if that is bullshit. It’s not my theory, just something I heard on Talk of the Nation (as I recall).

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Josh Marshall takes a break from pushing his new service (I forget what it’s called and what it is) to publish some viewer mail. He started with a whiny, woe-is-me concern troll, and is apparently getting a lot of pushback from people who sound like the people here. This is from a woman who for some reason was behind Bush for eight years but is now four-square behind Obama, on her new party:

    They get their feelings hurt or perceive they are losing or they become disappointed in their candidate, they go around with the “Woe is me, I am so depressed but I’ll do what I have to do”. What’s even more amazing is it is the Dems, not the Repubs who let a debate… a debate…after over three years in office, and Obama still can’t please these crybabies. The “Woe is me” attitude brings down everyone around them. Funny, dems are doing EXACTLY what Rush Limbaugh claimed the media was doing to surpass [sic] the Republican vote.

    The letter has some typos and omissions, but I like what this woman says about Dems, not indies or swingers or lo-infos, Dems who are always ready to curl up in a fetal position at the drop of a hat, who are more interested in one debate than a three and a half year presidency. Reminds me of our recent PUMA visitor whining about how “we can’t carry him all the time”

  86. 86.

    red dog

    @Soonergrunt: As a former contractor, you are doing it the right way by walking through a house with a similar layout. When the 1st floor deck is in place, have him lay out the walls with loose 2x4s and walk through to make sure they are what you want. You will change some door locations or closets and it is very easy to do BEFORE the walls are framed.

  87. 87.

    Another Halocene Human

    Random house buying question:

    So, the market is showing signs of leveling out, money is cheap if you have good credit, and my job situation seems pretty stable.

    My rent isn’t the cheapest and I’m a little envious of someone at work who got a cheap condo.

    The problem is that I’m afraid of what happens with homeowner’s insurance here in Florida. The market is still completely fucked up.

    Property tax is also insane. I effectively pay a lower rate because apt unit appraisal is CAPPED at $25K! Ha ha ha!

    Plus you have maintenance costs. And time and energy I do not have.

    The nice condos are too high. And too close to City Hall, which is bad mojo. That leaves assy condos, and what guarantees that the other tenants will pay their fees, which all seem kinda high anyway and defeating the purpose of getting a cheaper dwelling?

    Thoughts?

  88. 88.

    HinTN

    @gbear: I have grown so tired of the barrage that I unsubscribe at every opportunity. Also, too, I give when I can. Hoping to unseat a first term Teabagger Congresscritter here in Middle Tennessee, the home of the red.

  89. 89.

    JoyfulA

    @Yutsano: I think he’s still got his “Built by” sign at the street.

    Our neighbors are habitually annoyed that he built it with a much shorter front yard than any other house within sight, even though the lot is very, very deep.

  90. 90.

    Corner Stone

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    This is from a woman who for some reason was behind Bush for eight years but is now four-square behind Obama

    Nothing I like hearing more of than advice from some silly motherfucker who supported Bush for 8 years.

  92. 92.

    Corner Stone

    @Soonergrunt: I love planning out my next house. Can’t afford to move where I want to exactly yet, but I know what my house will contain when I do. If I’m still in this location when that happens.

  93. 93.

    Another Halocene Human

    @Violet: Maybe Palin just sounded ignorant and Ryan’s carefully crafted persona does not?

    Even though he is ignorant. But ignorant in a more cufflinks and $200-shoed way, I suppose.

  94. 94.

    gbear

    Life just became much improved at my house. I found out that new cat Edward Scissorpaws would tolerate having his claws trimmed if I did one foot at a time. My clothes, my furniture and my skin are all celebrating.

  96. 96.

    sacrablue

    I’ve had a lazy morning. My son made sausage gravy and biscuits for us. Now, if I can drag myself out of this chair, I must go do data entry for Bera for Congress til about 9pm. That takes care of Saturday for me.

  98. 98.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    @gbear: Is that really your cat’s name? That’s great… My daughter names all our pets after flowers it seems: Snowbell, Buttercup….

  100. 100.

    Soonergrunt

    @red dog: Noted, Thanks! Also, I’m getting to supervise the low voltage wiring. I’m going in while everything’s still in studs and showing them exactly where I want phones, cable, CAT-6 in each room.
    The only power changes we’re making is 3 additional 4-gang boxes in the garage along the side walls on both sides (2 per side). And the garage is going to be fully insulated.
    After that, it’s all my wife’s business.

  101. 101.

    Another Halocene Human

    @raven: Waa waa. That’s my soul dying inside. I wanted to purchase some land and build a modern house on a concrete slab when I was younger, but the housing bubble was on and land was through the frigging roof.

    Now I have this union thing going on. Fucking forget about it.

    Not fair. I would have done a kind of open dogtrot, very, VERY old school Florida style, dates to the Native Americans, who wisely cooked outside.

    They’re doing amazing stuff in Europe with retired cargo containers. But… I don’t have money to hire folks. Fuck. I have no skillz with metal.

  102. 102.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    @Chris: And, of course, they’re so misinformed 99% of the time. Every once in a while, I brave AM talk radio. Some putz with a drawl will call Dennis Miller and say something utterly stupid: “Obama wants to give the moon to the Chinese!” Miller will respond, “Unbelievable… I just don’t get that cat, babe. He’s not wired like the rest of us….”

    More on morons later….

  103. 103.

    Soonergrunt

    @Corner Stone: It’s been difficult with some of it. My wife has a habit of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good enough, but when we showed her the budget, that was the thing that helped her to focus on what she really wanted.
    If you have to risk giving up A in order to get B and C, you really start to think about how important each of those things really are.
    A good friend had a plan that started at 245K and ended at 296K after all the upgrades.

  104. 104.

    Chris

    @West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):

    Unbelievable… I just don’t get that cat, babe. He’s not wired like the rest of us….

    LMAO! One wonders if he was talking about Obama, or the caller.

    (I occasionally wonder if I should try to get a gig for myself as a talk radio host. Would have so much fun trolling these people).

  105. 105.

    gbear

    @West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): I adopted him last week. His name on his adoption papers is Edward. I added the Scissorpaws after a couple days of Edward showing his affection by jumping on my back and kneading my legs. He’s kind of suprised to find that he can’t cling to me like velcro now, but I’m OK with that.

  106. 106.

    jwb

    A new poll out from AZ showing Obama +2 (Rocky Mountain Poll). Don’t know anything about that polling firm.

  107. 107.

    Corner Stone

    @Suffern ACE:

    I’m a bachelor for the next week. I’m gonna live it up. I’m sleeping on his side of the bed. I’m gonna leave the reading light on. All the covers they are mine.

    I can’t poke too much fun. Some times when my son spends the night with his mom I turn everything off in the house and just sit quietly for hours at a time.
    Anyone with a young boy child will understand this.

  110. 110.

    Mnemosyne

    As I mentioned last night, I’m having a slight fashion emergency — the big work party I’m going to tonight is outdoors, and my dress is sleeveless. So now I have to run around to find a black shrug/sweater/jacket/SOMETHING so I’m not freezing all night.

    I’m also going to be wearing a shawlette that I made for the occasion, but it’s more decorative than practical, so I still need something to keep my arms warm so I don’t drive G crazy by whining all night.

  111. 111.

    Corner Stone

    @Soonergrunt: Sure. My goals are modest. Smaller SQFT, smaller master bed room and larger master closet. Kitchen laid out a littler better with a useful eating area and better ventilation. No formal dining or living area. No “home office” which pisses me off every time I see someone demand it on HGTV.
    I figure 1500SQFT if laid out correctly is more than enough. Mine now is 2300 and we have wasted space and a kitchen that is large-ish, but not done correctly.

  112. 112.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @jwb: we’re doooooomed. For the record, I’ll believe he’s ahead in AZ when I see three other polls confirming it, but if it’s that close to tied, maybe things aren’t so bleak. And I would be so pumped to see Carmona beat the aptly named Flake.

    @Chris: I sometimes listen to ten or fifteen minutes of liberal talk radio in the car– can’t do the Hannity Limbaugh god help us Dennis Miller spelunking some folks do— and I’m always fascinated by the rage-fueled rightwingers who try to filibuster over the host and shout them down. I’d just disconnect, but it is amazing that they think they own the airwaves just because someone let them on.

  114. 114.

    jwb

    @jwb: Nate thinks the number is an outlier, but does say that they conducted interviews with Spanish-speaking respondents in Spanish, so he thinks it might also represent a narrower margin in AZ.

  117. 117.

    Mnemosyne

    @jwb:

    Someone was saying yesterday that the word out of AZ is that Latino voters are unusually energized this year thanks to the “papers please” law (was it SB1070?) Even Sheriff Joe’s re-election is in doubt.

    If AZ is an upset for Obama because of that overreach, I will laugh and laugh and laugh.

  121. 121.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Honestly, I don’t think we have any “liberal” radio up here in NorCal where I live. We used to get KPIG out of Santa Cruz, but the station providing it switched to rightwing/nutjob radio (Rush, et al). We have a station that plays Democracy Now for about an hour a day, but that’s it. (Oh, and Le Show on Sundays through our NPR affiliate.) The notion that “the media” is liberal always astonishes me.

  122. 122.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): I have sat radio, and I still have a preset button for what used to be Air America, though I honestly don’t know why. Lazy inertia and I get enough music from my regular stations. Every once in a while Schultz or Stephanie Miller will have an interesting guest on, but I’m not a regular listener to either.

  123. 123.

    Soonergrunt

    @Corner Stone: We actually need a home office. I could work from home more often than I do now if I had more space here. The house we’re in is 1700 square feet but it’s positioned so that the back yard gets all the sun in the evenings and the back porch is unusable as it faces west. We don’t like the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room, but it’s structural so there’s not a lot we can do about it reasonably. We have a two car garage so whenever I want to do any wood work, one or both of the cars are outside for however long it takes. We use an interior closet for a tornado shelter but we can’t reinforce it because it’s too small as it is.
    The new design comes in at 2206 square feet with a home office about 160sqft, and the master closet being a steel box with concrete structural reinforcement.
    And the back porch will face north.

  124. 124.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Right-wing talk radio is fascinating to me. It’s like one of those fractals where each picture is made up of smaller versions of itself-it never ends. You’ve got your big names, Limbaugh and Hannity and Savage and so forth, but it seems like every town big enough to have paved roads has its own hometown shock jock spitting out the same talking points. Is there really that much demand, or is it one of those things where AFP or AEI or whoever pump in the money to keep them afloat. And those AM talk-only stations where you could, if you so chose, listen to Limbaugh, Ingraham, Hannity, Savage, Miller, etc. back-to-back-to-back. Are there people that do that? What else do they do all day? Do they work? I’m just frazzled by it all.

  125. 125.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    @Spaghetti Lee: @Spaghetti Lee: It is a confounding thing, isn’t it, Spaghetti? I can’t imagine being forced to sit there and absorb all the damn anger and stupidity for hours on end. Of course, listeners never suppose that Miller or Limbaugh or Savage could be untruthful or plain-old-wrong about anything.

    I will confess to listening for a time to Art Bell (hence my current BJ posting name), but I only liked the UFO and ghostly stuff — fluffy entertainment material. Rightwing talk radio is mind-numbing, toxic stuff. A lot of it is conspiracy stuff, too, which, from my understanding, is especially enticing to people who feel powerless and ineffectual in real life. Maybe those terms describe the listening demographic: aging, angry white guys who long for a yesteryear that never really was.

  126. 126.

    West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)

    A bit more on Dennis Miller… when I braved the show for about five minutes last week, he had on Orson Bean, who apparently was some game-show host decades ago (and the father-in-law of Breitbart). He and Miller were tossing around names: Richard Dawson, Burt Convey… I wondered who the hell was possibly listening with any interest whatsoever! I turned the damn thing off out of sheer boredom.

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